Margaret Truman, daughter of President Harry Truman, wrote over 20 "Capitol Crimes" novels, from the mid-1980s till year death three years ago.
Murder at the Library of Congress (1999) links an "accidental" murder in Florida during the theft of a painting from an unimportant local gallery with an underground art theft ring in Los Angeles with ties to Mexican mafia and spins it around a "lost" diary of Christopher Columbus' shipmate and a researcher at the Library of Congress. As the title suggests, another murder occurs in the library premises itself.
Although a series, Truman creates new characters for each story: they are detailed, sympathetic portraits with nominal short-hand, creating believable characters with genuine motivations for their actions. The plotting is solid and the language adult without straying into sensational. One of the things I enjoy about her books is the real-life settings and unravelling: there are no serial killers with hoods lurking in the shadows. This is mainstream murder mystery stuff, with a dash of politics, rather than a spills-and-chills thriller or larger-than-life villains. A highly entertaining read from first page to last.
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